"If only the little pig had plastered his straw walls…"

The phrase is written on the business card of Deirdre McGahern, owner of Straworks Inc., a company which incorporates straw bales into home design. And she is working on her biggest straw bale project to date, a 4,400-square-foot house just north of Port Hope.
Owned by Linda and Tony Armstrong, the house consists of a main entrance - a round tower reaching 30 feet in height - centred between living quarters with walls composed of straw bales.
And there's nothing particularly special about the straw bales used for construction. The only

difference is that they are packed a little tighter. In fact, the bales for this project come from a farmer across the road from the Armstrong's property.
Once installed, the bales are (more…)